Using "will" to describe (one's ideas about?) the past

Is this dialogue idiomatic:

- I played football at school.
- You [will be/will have been] quite athletic when you met Alice then.

Can you think of other examples?

I don't think so. Try:

Abe: I played football in high school.
Bob: You must have been quite athletic when you met Alice then.

It's okay to use will have been in that context but not will be. However, as Tarheel suggests, it's better to use must have been than will have been.

Other examples of what?

jutfrank said:

It's okay to use will have been in that context but not will be. However, as Tarheel suggests, it's better to use must have been than will have been.

Other examples of what?

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"John entered college. He studies hard for a few years. He will not, however, get a job at the bank as he hopes to. After the graduation, John made a career in politics".

The tenses are mixed up.

Uncanny said:

"John entered college. He studies hard for a few years. He will not, however, get a job at the bank as he hopes to. After the graduation, John made a career in politics".

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I don't understand what you're trying to say or what your question is really about.

Please try again to tell us what you want to know.

jutfrank said:

It's okay to use will have been in that context

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Can you please explain why it's okay? Is it grammatical to say "You will have been quite athletic when you met Alice"? I thought that "will have been" can only be used in Future Perfect, but that sentence is talking about the past.

Yes, will have been in this context is an example what we call the future perfect.

In this sentence, it's used to make an assumption. The reasoning is that since you played football at school, it stands to reason that you were quite athletic when you met Alice.

jutfrank said:

I don't understand what you're trying to say or what your question is really about.

Please try again to tell us what you want to know.

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The question is simple: does the following text make sense? Can we use 'will' in this way here in this context?
"John entered college. He studies hard for a few years. He will not, however, get a job at the bank as he hopes to. After the graduation, John made a career in politics".

John entered college. He studied hard to get good grades so he could graduate. However, he didn't get the job at a bank that he wanted to get. After graduation, he made a career in politics.

I don't know how to insert "will" into that, but the problem with the tenses has been solved.

Uncanny said:

The question is simple: does the following text make sense?

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No. The tense don't agree.

Uncanny said:

Can we use 'will' in this way here in this context?

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No.

Uncanny said:

"John entered college. He studies hard for a few years. He will not, however, get a job at the bank as he hopes to. After the graduation, John made a career in politics".

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If you make all the verbs present tense, it would work in the right narrative context:

John enters college. He studies hard for a few years. He will not, however, get a job at the bank as he hopes to. After the graduation, John makes a career in politics.

Uncanny said:

He will not, however, get a job at the bank as he hopes to.

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You're using "will" there to refer to the future, which is the way it's usually used. That's not the case with the use in post #1. Here's a couple of scenarios:

Helen: I went to my favourite restaurant last night.
Jane: You'll have had the risotto then, right? (Jane is making an assumption based on previous experience.)

Paul: I played a lot of sport at school.
John: You'll have had a lot of girlfriends then!

Note that "then" in both cases does not mean "at that time". It means "in that case".

jutfrank said:

John enters college. He studies hard for a few years. He will not, however, get a job at the bank as he hopes to. After the graduation, John makes a career in politics.

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I am sure the following text is perfectly fine as it simply shifts each of your tenses back into the past by one step:

John entered college. He studied hard for a few years. He does not, however, get a job at the bank as he hoped to. After the graduation, John made a career in politics.

Now, as we can mix the past and the present tenses while describing the past, I was just wondering what would happen if we added the future to such a mix. If I understand your correctly, we would have to write:

John entered college. He studied hard for a few years. He would not, however, get a job at the bank as he hoped to. After the graduation, John made a career in politics.

but not

John enters college. He studied hard for a few years. He would not, however, get a job at the bank as he hoped to. After the graduation, John makes a career in politics.

Uncanny said:

I am sure the following text is perfectly fine as it simply shifts each of your tenses back into the past by one step:

John entered college. He studied hard for a few years. He does not, however, get a job at the bank as he hoped to. After the graduation, John made a career in politics.

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I don't really understand what you're trying to do. Why have you put all the verbs in the past tense except does?

Uncanny said:

Now, as we can mix the past and the present tenses while describing the past

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Can we?

I think you mean this:

John entered college. He studied hard for a few years. He did not, however, get a job at the bank as he had hoped. After graduation, John made a career in politics.

Uncanny said:

John entered college. He studied hard for a few years. He does not, however, get a job at the bank as he hoped to. After the graduation, John made a career in politics.

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If you're determined to use "does", you'll have to put the whole thing in the historical present.

John enters college. He studies hard for a few years. He does not, however, get a job at the bank as he hopes. After graduating, he makes a career in politics.

emsr2d2 said:

If you're determined to use "does", you'll have to put the whole thing in the historical present.

John enters college. He studies hard for a few years. He does not, however, get a job at the bank as he hopes. After graduating, he makes a career in politics.

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Yes. Or, as I suggested in post #11, you could use the present tense auxiliary will instead of does for a different, 'future-in-the-past' meaning.

John entered college. He studied hard so he would get grades and earn a diploma. After he graduated he was disappointed that he didn't get the job he wanted working at a bank.